Avert considers the interrelationship of First Nations culture and photography, and responds to ideas of representation based on essentialist ideals. Employing the ‘expanded field’ as antidote to the effects of prescription, Avert’s form and narrative reflect a post-modernist positionality — encompassing a self-awareness as sitting within the 'Contemporary Indigenous Australian Photographic Practice’ space. In this space, the gaze is viewed as problematic.

Photography’s historical association with the colonial project has positioned the gaze within the Coloniality of power — a system which compartmentalises First Nation art and cultural practice, bound by an essentialist lens. Avert rejects this position via existential methodologies — the work both extending beyond itself and reflecting its relation to the space of its encounter.

___________________________________________

Context: Commissioned for the 2017 Ballarat International Foto Bienalle, this work formed part of the 'TELL' exhibition curated by Jessica Clark. Its showing as part of 'TELL' included a performance as detailed in the video on this page. 'Avert' also travelled to Sydney for the 2017 Sydney Festival which staged 'TELL' for an expanded audience.